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Thursday, October 18, 2012

31 Days Of Horror Day 18: The Amityville Horror (1979)

The director Jason Christopher hears strange noises every time he talks about the original version of The Amityville Horror as this special month long event celebrating horror rents a moving van!


After Halloween debuted in 1978, a bunch of rip-offs started came out, MGM wanted to try it's luck at horror again. The same studio that released Carrie released their next movie in the genre The Amityville Horror.

A Long Island colonial house on the river’s edge seemed so perfect. Quaint, spacious and affordable, it was just what George and Kathy Lutz had been looking for. But looks can be deceiving! Their new dream home soon becomes a hellish nightmare. Hordes of flies invade rooms as satanic forces haunt them with sheer, unbridled evil. Now, with their lives – and their souls – in danger, the Lutz family must run as fast as they can from the home they once loved…or fall prey to its terrifying power!

Margot Kidder continues to be just as gorgeous here as she was in 1974’s Black Christmas. James Brolin leads the way as her husband. His transition from pure innocent to pure evil is pretty cool and enjoyable. Although, in the beginning he does come off as a little miserable, it works.

There are two scenes that I always loved in this movie. The first one is when the priest comes in to bless the house but no one is around. He walks upstairs and gets trapped in the room. Flies ridiculously swarm around and soon hears a demonic sounding voice screams GET OUT! That’s a classic. The second one would be when the babysitter gets trapped in the closet. It’s so terrifying and realistic that it stuck with me for some time after--although those braces on her teeth are something else.

Michael Bay’s Platinum Dune production company released a remake in 2005. It was okay, nothing to really jump over like the original. I’m a fan of Ryan Reynolds when he does a serious role, though. Chloe Grace Moretz plays the daughter, cool, eh?

Probably the only Platinum Dune movies I’ll recommend, eh no I lied, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was okay and The Beginning was a cool take on it as well.

Amityville Horror is a classic gem! The music in the film day still freaks me out, hands down the freakiest music ever! I think it’s on Blu Ray, not sure…the DVD copy is decent although it only has a mono mix on it. So…GET OUT! And watch this movie!

13 days till Halloween.

-Jay

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